Ann Coffey

Press Release 6th December – Ann Coffey visits national support line run from Stockport

Stockport MP Ann Coffey visited the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), whose national support line is based in Stockport.

NAPAC is a national charity which offers support to adults who suffered any type of childhood abuse – physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect. NAPAC’s support line is totally confidential and is free from landlines and mobile phones is 0808 801 0331.

During her visit, Ann met some of the busy NAPAC volunteers, who receive extensive training before they take calls. The demand for the survivor support line and e-mail support service has risen substantially over the past three years, with 89,960 call attempts last year.

Ann Coffey said:

“NAPAC is a small charity, with very few paid staff. It is doing a really amazing job in supporting thousands of survivors of child abuse across the country. The dedicated volunteers I met are well trained and clearly get great satisfaction from helping people, some of whom may be talking to someone for the first time about their childhood experiences. But NAPAC needs more volunteers, so they can answer more calls.”

Sam Booth, NAPAC’s support line manager, said:

“We’ve got a great team here, but we’re busier than ever, so we need donations and more volunteers. We answered over 8,000 calls and support emails last year, but there were nearly 90 thousand call attempts.

“We provide extensive training to our volunteers before they take calls and we look after them through our model of live supervision and support. There’s something really special when someone takes that first step of talking about what they suffered as a child, we know they’re on the road to recovery.”

To find out more about being a NAPAC volunteer, go to napac.org.uk/volunteering